This Week in Coaching: Why Brian Kelly, Billy Napier will forever be compared to one another
With a loaded Saturday slate, Week 7 stands to offer all sorts of fireworks.
We’ve got the most intriguing Third Saturday in October since Lane Kiffin was at Tennessee, Top 10 Penn State going to the Big House to play No. 5 Michigan, No. 6 USC hosting reigning Pac-12 champ Utah, Syracuse looking to stay undefeated against NC State and Clemson traveling to Florida State.
But the juiciest This Week in Coaching storyline Saturday is happening down in Gainesville, where a couple of 4-2 crossover-rivals with new head coaches will square off.
LSU at Florida. Brian Kelly vs. Billy Napier.
After a couple of noted firings last fall, both programs are undergoing significant changes in 2022 — culturally, schematically and operationally — as LSU and Florida hope to become championship contenders again soon.
Brian Kelly explicitly left Notre Dame for LSU because he believes the Tigers give him a better opportunity to win a national title. Same for Billy Napier at Florida, as the former Louisiana-Lafayette head coach patiently turned down other opportunities in the SEC (reportedly Mississippi State, Auburn and South Carolina) in recent years for that very reason, too.
Both coaches could ultimately accomplish such goals, but Kelly vs. Napier will forever be compared because a particular SEC school mostly ignored one in favor of the other.
Go back to last November, Billy Napier was on the cusp of winning back-to-back Sun Belt Championships in the Bayou State. He had ties to Nick Saban and Dabo Swinney. He’d been a successful coordinator and proven Group of 5 head coach. He was a well-regarded recruiter and a meticulous organizer.
He was ready for his next challenge.
And yet when LSU fired Ed Orgeron, the in-state candidate barely got a sniff from Tigers athletics director Scott Woodward. At least that’s the conventional thinking a year later.
“I don’t know that’s something you talk publicly about,” Napier said earlier this week when asked on his dealings as a potential candidate — or not — with LSU last year.
“I think we’re all well aware of chaotic times in college football when you get to November, December, January.”
“I’ll tell you one thing. I’m grateful for the opportunity I was given here. For the administration here, for Scott (Stricklin) and all the people that contributed to that decision to have faith and confidence, do their homework on me, give me an opportunity to lead here.”
Billy Napier was certainly Florida’s top choice, as AD Scott Stricklin bet $51 million reasons that the 43-year-old up-and-comer was ready to revive a major SEC program.
Woodward bet on certainty instead, handing Kelly $95 million to leave Notre Dame.
LSU’s decision will forever intertwine the careers of Kelly and Napier, with their results compared against one another as long as they remain at their respective institutions.
Did Woodward make the right choice?
Time will tell.
Would Napier rather be at LSU or Florida?
That he can answer emphatically.
“I can’t imagine being at a much better place,” Napier said. “This path was right. That’s what I would say. There’s not a day that I woke up and said am I at the right place or not? I’ve got conviction about that.
“And the more I’m here, every day that I’m here, the more I’m confident about what we can accomplish here. So it’s a blessing to be at the University of Florida and represent such a great place.”
MIKE HART UPDATE
In a scary scene last Saturday at Indiana, Michigan running backs coach Mike Hart suffered a reported seizure on the sidelines during the first quarter, causing the game to pause for Hart to be carted off the field.
The 36-year-old former Wolverines tailback stayed at a Bloomington hospital overnight and released a statement Monday saying he was “back in Ann Arbor” and “things are trending in a positive direction.”
Hart hopes to return to UM soon, but with little certainty to when that may be exactly, Wolverines head coach Jim Harbaugh tabbed a longtime Michigan assistant to fill Hart’s shoes by coaching the team’s tailbacks this weekend.
Fred Jackson, 72, spent more than 20 years on multiple staffs at Michigan, working under Gary Moeller, Lloyd Carr, Rich Rodridguez and Brady Hoke. He was last a full-time assistant in 2014, but was hired by Harbaugh as an analyst this offseason.
While Hart recovers, Jackson will move to an on-field assistant role, working a dynamic set of ‘backs in Blake Corum and Donovan Edwards.
The Wolverines have a monster game Saturday, hosting Penn State in a Top 10 showdown in Ann Arbor.
DID YOU KNOW?
… That two of the last three Auburn coaches to lose to Ole Miss were fired the same season?
Another curtains moment for the Bryan Harsin era then, right?
Historically, the Tigers don’t lose to the Rebels, mostly dominating the series over the last 50 years.
But they’re 14.5-point underdogs on Saturday, as Harsin, who will be fired sometime in 2022, looks in imminent danger of adding his name to the recent naughty list of AU coaches.
The Tigers have won 15 of their last 18 matchups against the Rebels. Gus Malzahn lost to Ole Miss in 2015 but kept his job.
The same can’t be said for Tommy Tuberville in 2008, who lost to Ole Miss 17-7, or Gene Chizik in 2012, who lost 41-20.
Here’s to guessing Harsin becomes the third coach to suffer a similar fate.
COORDINATOR OF THE WEEK TO WATCH
It’s a big week for Utah defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley.
With No. 6 USC coming to Salt Lake City, Scalley is responsible for devising a plan to slow down Lincoln Riley’s explosive offense, spearheaded by Heisman Trophy hopeful Caleb Williams at quarterback.
Scalley has served as Kyle Whittingham’s defensive coordinator since 2016. An All-American defensive back for the Utes, Scalley has spent his entire coaching career at his alma mater, starting as a grad assistant in 2007
He makes around $1.4 million annually, among the highest-paid assistants in all the Pac-12, but Utah’s defense has slipped a bit in 2022. They rank just 65th nationally in yards per play allowed — the worst showing thus far across Scalley’s tenure.
The Utes are solid against the pass though, and that could prove pivotal against the Trojans, especially if they’re willing to pivot from their typical aggressive Cover-1 scheme.
Utah leads the Pac-12 in pass defense, but those stats are a bit hollow as they include a dominant performance against an FCS team. Still, the Utes picked off Oregon State four times and Arizona State twice.
But Dorian Thomson-Robinson sliced up Utah’s secondary for 299 yards and four touchdowns last weekend, and that’s a cause for concern with Williams’ ability to trigger the Trojans’ passing game.
Whittingham and Scalley love to play man-pressure defense, but the best strategy against USC this season is to drop back in zone and force Williams to be patient.
Per PFF, the former Oklahoma transfer is among the worst passers in the Pac-12 against zone looks.
So will Scalley adjust from his usual playbook and find a way to win a major Pac-12 game?
QUOTABLE
“Some random person found my phone number. And he did make a suggestion, but he didn’t answer back after I reached back out to him. So yeah, interesting.”
– Oklahoma Sooners head coach Brent Venables
It’s not quite Grapes of Wrath bad right now at Oklahoma, but it’s desperate times for the Sooners in 2022.
After getting dog-walked by Texas 49-0 in Red River, OU is on its first three-game losing streak since 1998 — i.e. before the Bob Stoops to Lincoln Riley Era(s).
Venables is already feeling the heat, as his defense is the worst in the Big 12 in yards per play allowed (5.74) and has given up 40+ points in all three conference games already this season.
Sitting at 3-3, Oklahoma has little hope of competing for a Big-12 title, so Venables is focused on shoring up the Sooners’ flawed fundamentals — hoping a strong end to the 2022 season will build confidence for the program’s future.
“People are gonna remember this team by how we finish,” he said, as OU hosts No. 19 Kansas on Saturday.
“And I think it’s incredibly important that this week, like any other week, is virtually the same in regards to what it takes to win and be successful. We’re still not where we want to be obviously. This is a game of improvement. It’s a game of development. And we obviously have a long ways to go. Right now for whatever reason, we haven’t been able to get into a good rhythm here the last several weeks as a football team.”